"Canstruct loses lucrative Nauru offshore processing contract to US prisons operator with controversial record", 16 August 2022

Canstruct has lost the lucrative contract to run Australia’s offshore immigration regime on Nauru with the Brisbane firm to be replaced by a US-headquartered private prisons operator that has a controversial past.

Sources have told the Guardian that Canstruct’s current contract, set to end on 30 September, will not be renewed and from 1 October “facilities, garrison, transferee arrivals and reception services” will be run by Management and Training Corporation (MTC) Australia.

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Canstruct declined to comment citing contract confidentiality restrictions. The Guardian understands the company did tender to extend its contract but was not selected.

The company nominated as the “preferred tenderer” to take over – MTC Australia – is the Australian arm of the private prisons company. No contract has yet been signed. MTC did not respond to a series of questions.

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But the company has a controversial record. Three correctional officers were charged over the alleged assault of a detainee at Parklea in July. The three officers are due to face court later this month.

In the US, MTC faces an ongoing lawsuit over the detention of a US citizen held in near-solitary confinement for 14 months. The complaint alleges “solitary confinement is a form of torture” and notes the United Nations prohibits prolonged solitary confinement which can constitute torture.

The lawsuit, filed in California, alleges that MTC was a company that “traffics in human captivity for profit”. The case remains active before the court. MTC did not respond to questions about the case.

In 2015, the Arizona governor Doug Ducey cancelled MTC’s contract after a state department of corrections report into a riot at Kingman prison found the company had “a culture of disorganisation, disengagement and disregard for state policies”.

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